Study of neutron irradiation on F82H alloys by Mössbauer spectroscopy

The effects of neutron irradiation on F82H ferritic/martensitic stainless steel and its model alloys were studied by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The microstructural damage mechanisms of these alloys, during the void incubation period were interpreted using the short range order (SRO) parameters. Results show that within Fe–8Cr alloy, the atoms in the nearest neighbor (NN) of the Fe nuclei were inhomogeneous, prior to irradiation. A configuration trapping model of Cr supported the negative average SRO observed for the NN shells in our Fe–Cr alloys. We found that irradiation also accelerated the SRO in Fe–8Cr through a diffusion mechanism, where Cr atom repulsion was concentration dependent. Finally, comparative studies were conducted on F82H model alloys using the present Mössbauer measurements and our previously reported work on positron annihilation spectroscopy, which further established that irradiation of the alloys promoted the growth of a M23C6 complex.